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The Income Tax Department on Wednesday cautioned salaried taxpayers not to under-report their income or inflate deductions and exemptions while filing tax returns, warning that wrong claims would be treated as cases of tax evasion.
In a single-page advisory issued on Wednesday, the department said such attempts aided and abetted by unscrupulous intermediaries have "been noted with concern".
Such offences are punishable under various penal and prosecution provisions of the Income Tax Act, it said.
"In the cases of such wrong claims by government or Public Sector Undertaking employees, reference would be made to the concerned vigilance division for action under conduct rules," the advisory said.
It added that the department may also prosecute the intermediaries and abettors and may refer such cases to other law enforcement agencies for appropriate action.
The processing of ITRs by Centralised Processing Centre-Bengaluru is done in an automated rule-based manner with no human interface with the taxpayer.
"In all such cases of high risk, the department may examine and verify the details submitted by taxpayers in their ITR, subsequent to processing of returns in CPC," the advisory said.
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